People increasingly spend a tremendous amount of time interacting with computers; this interaction includes a copious amount of media consumption using these computers. This interaction may be for many different reasons such as education, entertainment, social media interaction, document creation, and gaming, to name a few.
In some cases the human-computer interaction can take the form of a person performing a task using a software-based tool running on a computer. Examples include filling out a tax form, creating a document, editing a video, and/or doing one or more of the numerous other activities performable by a modern computer. The person can find the execution of certain activities interesting or even exciting, and may be surprised at how easy it is to perform the activity. The person may become excited, happy, or content as he or she performs such an interesting or exciting activity. On the other hand, the person can find some activities difficult to perform, and may become frustrated or even angry with the computer or software tool. In some cases, users are surveyed in an attempt to determine where a computer or computer program may be functioning well, and where it may need improvement. However, such survey results are often unreliable because the surveys are often competed well after the activity was performed. In addition, survey participation rates may be low, and people may not provide accurate and honest answers to the survey.
In other cases of human-computer interaction, the person is using a software tool to accomplish a task, but instead may be consuming computer-accessed content or media such as news, pictures, music, or video. Currently, while or after consuming computer-driven content, viewers may tediously self-rate the media to communicate personal preferences. In some cases, viewers may enter a specific number of stars corresponding to a level of like or dislike, while in other cases, users may be asked to answer a list of questions. While this system of evaluation is a helpful metric to evaluate media and other products or services, such evaluation may be tedious and challenging. Thus, in many cases, this type of subjective evaluation is neither a reliable nor practical way to evaluate personal response to media. Recommendations based on such a system of star rating or other self-reporting are imprecise, subjective, unreliable, and are further limited by sample size: often, only a small number of viewers actually rate the media they have consumed.